Questions about the Bible?
1. What is the Bible?·
It is a library. It is one book, yes, but it is a book encompassing a collection of books 66 in total. Once opened, you will discover that it is broken into 2 sections.
There is the Old Testament which goes from Genesis to Malachi, and then there is the New Testament which goes from Matthew through to Revelation. It is made up of the books of the prophets, and of the law, and of the Psalms.
Paul speaks of the advantage of being of Jewish heritage, one of the advantages described in Rom 3:2 is “First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.”, and he is of course referring to the Old Testament.
In the New Testament we have the Gospels and then the acts of the apostles the history book of the early church, and the letters to various gatherings of God’s people, and then we have revelation, an insight to a realm yet to be experienced that was granted to the Apostle John.
66 books, written in a variety of languages, mainly Hebrew and Greek, over a period of more than 1,000 years. Originating in places as far apart as Babylon and Rome and penned by as many as 40 different individuals.
That’s what the Bible is.
It is a book like no other book! It’s the best-selling book of all time, all of the time. But that’s not what makes it special. It’s a book you can almost read from the back to the front. It’s a book with the answers in the back!
For most people they don’t see how it all comes together. You have Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses and Abraham, how do they all come together; frankly for most people it’s a mystery. It’s like a two-act play. You need the first to give you the foundation and the second to complete all that the first has introduced us to.
Ultimately, it is a book like no other book, because it’s a book about Jesus. If you lose your way around the bible, always take your eyes back to Jesus, and it will come back to an even keel.
· In the Old Testament, Jesus is predicted
· In the Gospels He is revealed.
· In the Acts of the apostles He is preached.
· In the Epistles He is explained.
· In the book of Revelation, He is expected.
It is a book like any book in that we need to spend time reading it to understand it! In seeking to understand it, we make the amazing discovery that it seems to understand us! That when you’re reading its pages, sometimes it’s a description of you. It’s like your mind has been read before you read the section. Your feeling peculiarly downcast and the bible came, and it brought you a word of encouragement. You were thinking of making a run for it and suddenly you read a piece from the scripture which says the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord.
2. Who wrote it?
The answer is that The Bible has a duel authorship. On the one hand God wrote it, on the other hand, men wrote it. Or if you like God spoke, and man spoke. 2 Tim 3:16 says “All Scripture is inspired by God” in many translation, it says God breathed.. The word that Paul uses there is a unique word, he is conveying a familiar idea, the idea of the breath of God expressing the power and authority of God. You find the word not only in relationship to the scriptures, but also in relation to his work of creation.
In Psalm 33:6 the psalmist says “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” He is not saying two things there, he is saying one thing using Hebrew parallelism. The great writer says one truth two different ways in order to reinforce it. Have you noticed….” By the word”…..” by the breath of his mouth”. It is this same notion that is then conveyed by Paul to Timothy, and what He is saying is, that God breathed out the scriptures, not in some strange way but in a very natural way. In a way in which you and I have made words today.
How did you make intelligible sounds today? Assuming you have made some? Air over your Larynx… God says he has breathed out the word and this gives the bible its reliability and authority. He has spoken revealing truth and keeping the human authors from error.
Peter says something very interesting….2 Peter 1:21 “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” The Greek word here is interesting. It’s the word “Phero” which means to be carried along… If you read in Acts 27 the story of the shipwreck involving Paul, you will discover that this same verb is used to describe what was taking place to their vessel, and twice in verse 15 and 17 Luke records that as a result of the power of the storm, their vessel was simply “driven along”! Same word. It was driven along simply by the influence of the power of the wind.
That is exactly the metaphor and picture that is used here by Peter. He is saying that men were driven along…in other words, as they raised the sails, the Holy Spirit filled their sails. And the scriptures did not originate in their will. Wasn’t that they said, I think I’ll write the bible today! Rather they wrote to their issues, they wrote to their time, wrote to their culture, and they were driven along and moved by the Spirit of God. That’s why we have Amos, sharp character, prophet of Gods justice, but in Isaiah, its much lighter, its warmer, its softer, Isaiah the prophet of God’s Love.
God spoke the bible, using people to write it.
The church did not write the bible. Prophets and the Apostles wrote the Word to the people of God. The reliability of what is written rests on the fact that behind them is the work of the Holy Spirit. And this is the reason why the church has no right to re-write what God has written. The church has no right to re-write what God has written.
You have to be on your guard against those who dismiss the teaching from God saying it doesn’t matter now. That’s 600 years old, it doesn’t matter. That’s what they believed about women and their role, about sexuality back then, but this is way different now. As if somehow or other the Word of God that was given then is irrelevant now. Listen carefully, in the scriptures, God was and is speaking to us.
· If you want to listen to God open your Bible.
· The safest way to hear God speak is to read your bible.
And beware of every other notion about How you’re going to hear from God. The mystical ideas that came out of the centuries, the trivial ideas of mysticism that suggest we can somehow understand and feel God separate and apart from His word.
We are so quick to listen to authors and people who suggest solutions to tickle our ears, suggesting the solution to our problems are found in another book or practice telling us we can discover for ourselves mystically what God is doing and where God is going. Friends and readers, if you want to know where God is doing and where God is going, read your Bibles!
What God has to say to us is much more important than what we have to say to Him.
3. How are we supposed to understand it?
In one word? Properly. The Bible is not a book of intriguing little ideas that are only found by initiates who are able to set-aside the grammar and the history and discover these little nuggets. Our concern is simply to understand the Bible properly. We are not really interested in what it means to you, we are interested in what God is conveying to us.
The way to avoid foolishness in application and interpretation is to keep some simple principles before you:
If you are going to interpret the bible, the answer is not let’s go and see what the preacher, elder, pastor has to say. Eph 4:11-12 has been given “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;” They have a unique role, we understand that, but they are not popes, they are simply learners from the one who has the answers.
Scriptures need to be interpreted on the straight forward sense of the passage. In order to do that you have to interpret it firstly according to its original meaning. Paul writes to the Corinthians at a certain point in time, at a certain place. We must understand the historical context and the circumstances in Corinth, before we start making application here in Dublin.
We need to stay in context, otherwise you can simply take any sentence from the bible and say anything you want it to.
If you’re going to interpret it in accordance with its straight forward sense, not only do you need to pay attention to its original meaning, but you have to pay attention to its literary form. Am I reading poetry or prose? Am I dealing with a parable or am I dealing with history. Am I dealing with allegory am I dealing with a metaphor with a simile? Because it makes a difference doesn’t it?
2 Ch 16:9 “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.” Interpret this; unless you understand that this is a metaphor, then you will conclude that 2 literal eyes scan the universe. In case you’re wondering, Its teaching the omnipotence of God. It is a picture to convey a truth.
Scripture needs to be interpreted by scripture. There is a harmony to the scripture, and you would expect it because it comes from a single divine author. For example, Matt 7, where Jesus said ask and you shall receive. We have often had that misinterpreted to mean, anything. I want wealth and health and success… so you go to the parallel verse in Luke 11.13: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” And so we get a proper understanding.
4. What is its purpose.
To make men wise to salvation. Where did you get that from Michael?
2 Tim 3:15 “and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
It’s not a book about astronomy, or chemistry, or all History. It’s also not the only place to learn about God.
Rom 1:20-21 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honour Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
But it is absolutely the only place to learn about salvation, and without the Bible, man can’t find salvation, cause he cannot find Jesus and know Jesus will for him.